‘Fiscal firepower’ of £352bn brought to bear to protect jobs and livelihoods hit by Covid

‘The Government is proud of the furlough – one of the most generous schemes in the world’

‘[The UK’S] incredible vaccination programme ... has shown the world what this country is capable of ’

RISHI SUNAK has pledged a £352billion support package to help people and businesses affected by the pandemic.

The Chancellor said the package, which will last into next year and includes an additional £65billion of measures “to support the economy in response to coronavirus”, will help deal with “the largest, most comprehensive and sustained economic shocks this country has ever faced”.

He added: “We’re using the full measure of our fiscal firepower to protect jobs and livelihoods.”

Furlough

The furlough scheme will be extended to the end of September and means employers will be able to keep staff on the payroll through the scheme until the end of summer. From July they will have to start paying 10 per cent towards their employees’ furlough pay, which will rise to 20 per cent from August.

Self-employment grants

Many self-employed people were left out of previous support as they had not filed tax returns. This will now be recognised in the fourth round of grants, worth up to £7,500. This means over 600,000 more people, many of whom became self-employed last year can now claim the fourth and fifth grants.

Mr Sunak said: “The Government is proud of the furlough – one of the most generous schemes in the world.”

Universal credit

The uplift of £20 a week will continue for a further six months, well beyond the end of this national lockdown.

The Daily Telegraph previously revealed this would be happening following tense negotiations and pressure from backbenchers for a lengthier commitment. The National Living Wage will also rise to £8.91, equivalent to an extra £350 a year for a full-time worker.

Restart grants

From next month, the restart grant will help businesses reopen. Non-essential retail businesses, an economy that employs around 1.2million people, will open first, and will receive grants of up to £6,000 per premises.

Mr Sunak said that because hospitality and leisure businesses, including personal care business such as hair and beauty salons and gyms, might be “more impacted by restrictions” when they opened, they would be awarded grants of up to £18,000. This is an additional £5billion of grants on top of the £20 billion already provided.

Culture and sport

Mr Sunak gave thanks to Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, as he announced the £700million in support to “our incredible arts, culture and sporting institutions as they reopen”. “[We are] backing the UK and Ireland’s joint 2030 World Cup bid, launching a new approach to apprenticeships in the creative industries, and extending our £500million film and TV production restart scheme,” Mr Sunak said.

Retail, hospitality & leisure

Until the end of June, the business rates holiday for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will continue and will be discounted by two thirds for the remaining nine months of the year. Earlier this month Scotland extended its business rates holiday for another year, in what was believed to have applied pressure on the Chancellor to do the same as there was fear that retail and hospitality firms were going to be hit with tax bills before they were able to reopen. Mr Sunak acknowledged that hospitality and tourism, industries that employ over 2.4million people, had been some of the hardest hit sectors.

In order to “protect those jobs” he announced that the 5 per cent reduced rate of VAT for the tourism and hospitality sector would be extended for six months to the end of September, with an interim rate of 12.5 per cent for another six months after that.

Domestic abuse

Mr Sunak told the Commons that “one of the hidden tragedies of lockdown has been the increase in domestic abuse”. In January, the NSPCC revealed that domestic abuse harming children was being reported 50 per cent more during the pandemic.

Mr Sunak said as a result he was announcing an extra £19million, on top of the £125million that was announced at the Spending Review, “for domestic violence programmes to reduce the risk of reoffending, and to pilot a network of ‘Respite Rooms’ to provide specialist support for vulnerable homeless women”. Mr Sunak also paid tribute to

“the sacrifices” made by “women and men in the Armed Forces community”. As such he announced an “additional £10million to support veterans with mental health needs”.

Mr Sunak also said that funding to support survivors of the Thalidomide scandal, who were victims of the birth defect pregnancy drug Thalidomide, runs out in 2023.

He said the survivors “deserve better than to have constant uncertainty about the future costs of their care”.

“So not only will I extend this funding with an initial down payment of around £40 million; I am today announcing a lifetime commitment, guaranteeing funding forever,” he said.

Mr Sunak also thanked the Thalidomide Trust and the Honourable Member for North Dorset for their leadership on this important issue.

Vaccines

Mr Sunak said that the UK’S “incredible vaccination programme”, which aims to have had 32million people vaccinated by April 15, “has shown the world what this country is capable of ”.

He confirmed an additional £1.6billion for the vaccine rollout and to “improve future preparedness”.